Defense motions denied in Troy patricide case

By DAVE PHILLIPS

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

An Oakland County Circuit Court judge has denied three motions filed by attorneys for a Troy man accused of killing his father.

Patrick Mikes Jr. was in court Wednesday morning for the motion hearing, in which motions seeking to suppress evidence, suppress an audio recording and quash a circuit court bind over of the case on an open murder charge were heard.

Mikes is charged with open murder in the death of his father, Patrick Mikes Sr., whose bludgeoned body was found in a Montrose Township corn field about two weeks after his disappearance.

The motion to suppress evidence relates to a police search of the Mikes' Homewood Drive home in Troy on July 29 -- two days after Mikes Sr. went missing.

Mikes and his 15-year-old brother, Andrew, contacted police to report their father missing. Police came to the home and asked to "look around," said Robert Harrison, one of two attorneys representing Mikes.

In the process of looking around, officers found bloody garbage bags -- one of which contained a bloody towel -- behind a furnace. Noticing the blood, an officer cut the bag open to investigate.

"We must look at what the consent was," Harrison said.

"It was a consent to do the defined purpose of looking around. It did not contain within it to open anything. It did not contain within it to move anything. It did not contain within it the right to destroy anything."

The audio recording motion involves a recorded conversation between Mikes and his sister, Elizabeth, at the Troy police station.

"This conversation was overheard by some amplification system in the Troy Police Department where there may not have been signs indicating you're waving your right to privacy," Christopher Andreoff, who also represents Mikes, said.

"If we allow this conversation to go in ... are my conversations (with Mikes) also being monitored and then (will they) be admissible as evidence?"

Andreoff also argued that Mikes should not have been bound over on an open murder charge, but only on a manslaughter charge.

Oakland County Assistant Prosecutor Ken Frazee addressed the issues before Oakland County Circuit Judge James Alexander made his ruling.

"What you have here, factually, is a defendant who murders his father, waits several days, and because he lives in the victim's home (and his brother is worried), the defendant himself is the one who calls police," Frazee said.

"The defendant is informed they're sending officers to his house. (An officer) identifies himself. He's in uniform. There's no secret as to why he is there.

"The defendant's lying to the officer because he knows darn well he's murdered his father and carted his body off to Genesee County, where it's left to rot in a cornfield."

Frazee said even if Mikes did not give consent to the search, his brother, Andrew, did.

"He wanted the police to find his father," Frazee said of Andrew Mikes.

"That's why he gave consent."

Frazee said the recording of the conversation Mikes had in the police station was proper as well.

"The court's well aware that police are allowed to monitor conversations in a police department," he said.

"They had been there at least 10 hours. They had already been given Miranda (rights)."

Frazee also noted that the prosecution only had to show evidence indicating second-degree murder in order to qualify for a bind over on an open murder charge.

"The motion to quash (the bind over) is an issue for the trier of fact," he said.

Alexander denied all three motions.

"There is no evidence of any coercion or duress (regarding the police search)," Alexander said.

"In fact, the defendant is the one who called police to the home ... The officer did not violate the Fourth Amendment (which protects against unreasonable searches) by cutting open a garbage bag ... in a home the defendant called him to."

Alexander said prosecutors "claimed the defendant made admissions to (his sister) during their discussion about the pending homicide case. The defendant does not claim that he asked for any privacy, nor was he offered any."

For the motion seeking to have the bind over quashed, Alexander cited the Michigan Supreme Court, which "has held that district court should bind a defendant over if there is conflicting evidence."

Mikes' attorneys plan to file a motion seeking an expedited ruling by the Michigan Court of Appeals. In that appeal, Mikes' attorneys are seeking to have doctors allowed into the jail to speak with Mikes.